Trijicon bible codes or The Jesus Rifles

Trijicon, according to wikipedia, an American company, that manufactures and distributes optical sighting devices for firearms, including pistols, rifles, and shotguns, has been bouncing around the news since 2010 for placing biblical verse references in the codes stamped on the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight or ACOG.

This has created some media attention due to various responses. Some by Americans who find this to be a violation of church and state, some who consider the codes to be dangerous for american soldiers should the weapons fall into the hands of the Taliban, some Islamic leaders in America, who are troubled by the suggestion of a crusade mentality.

The responses to these responses are enlightening. A blogger on www.thetruthaboutguns.com writes; ‘Lest we forget, the 9/11 hijackers were told to meditate on the Koran. Specifically, 8.12 (“cast terror into the hearts of those who are bent on denying the truth; strike, then, their necks!”) and 9.5 (“God instructs his Muslim followers to kill unbelievers, to capture them, to ambush them.”).

I say fight fire with fire. Is that Biblical? It should be. And I wouldn’t mind seeing it engraved on the side of an Army rifle either. Or a serial number referring to a violent Old Testament passage. Or, why the hell not, the Koran.’

Which lead one Christian blogger to reflect; I have no inside knowledge as to why Trijicom chose these passages, but I would note that each passage has the theme of “light”. “I am the light of the world”; “… commanded the light to shine out of darkness”; “the Lord is my light …”. A quick read of the Wikipedia page shows the theme of light in each of the Jesus Rifle codes. Not to get all Dan Brownish or anything, but perhaps an optics company owned by devout Christians whose products use light enhanced technologies was engaged in an inside joke — a Sunday School pun?

My blog started as an ongoing dialogue about how popular American Culture has eroded Christian faith.

What are the implications of placing Bible verses codes on military weapons?

Let’s take Matt 5:16, ‘let your light shine before others,’ above for instance. What exactly is Trijicon trying to communicate by adding this verse to its coding? Is it simply a company owned by evangelical Christians trying to express their support for active military? While it is a virtue to offer prayers and wishes for the safety of those inactive military, my concern is that Matt 5:16 wasn’t intended for that purpose. If we look at the larger context of Matt 5, we find that it is the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the beatitudes, which include ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’ It also contains a blessing for those who are ‘persecuted,’ which at least suggests to me that the followers of Jesus respond to conflict and threat with peace, even if that makes them vulnerable to persecution, to force. In other words, they will not respond to threat with force. Following the verse cited on the scope we find Jesus offering instructions about conflict resolution, in which Jesus warns not only about murder, but anger, calling it a serious and danger sin to carry anger, and in which he then commands reconciliation through dialogue, repentance, and forgiveness.

Matt 5:16 is nestled in a long sermon explaining the unique make-up of those invited into the kingdom of God and living in active anticipation of this Kingdom, in which conflict is resolved through confession, forgiveness and reconciliation. This is the ‘light’ to which the verse quoted refers, the light of peace that Jesus came to live and teach. To be the ‘light’ does not refer to a generic ‘nice-ness.’ This light is not a wish or prayer for safety or protection, as much as we may want it to be. And it is not a blessing of violence even if some feel it is justifiable. As a matter of fact, Jesus refers to his followers as a light in order to empower them to go into a violent and dangerous world empowered to live in and instruct that world of a new, different and God ordained, way of living in diversity and conflict and this, I hope it goes without saying, has no connection with weapons.

What alarms and concerns me more than the fact that Matt 5:16 was ripped from context in order (apparently) market a message in such opposition to the gospel, is this action of making the Bible mean what we want it to mean, smoothing off its rough edges in order to support instead of shape our agendas. And this is vitally important for Christians to be aware of considering the fact that I reframed the original question which inspired this blog, ‘How has Cutlure eroded Christianity,’ to ‘How has Christianity eroded popular american culture. When the message of the gospel, in this case the message of the uniquely revealed instruction from Christ about how those living in Covenant with God would respond to conflict and even threat, is used to support and encourage violence and vengeance, we are forced to face the fact that culture often shapes Christianity more often than the Christianity rescues us from culture.

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Perhaps I’m a bit numb, but this to me is just another case of someone taking the name of the Lord in vain. Is this worse than someone pulling verses out of context to justify an crooked agenda? It seems like these people didn’t really understand what they were lifting – just looking for a word to fit their marketing. I think that I am more alarmed when their misuse is used to mislead people who are trying to live according to God’s Word.

You are far from numb sir!
You are right, this is a violation of the commandment against taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Although I’m not so sure that they ‘didn’t really understand’
I agree with your point about misleading people. I guess I see this as an example of that kind of misleading.